Site Mobile Navigation

Table 1 at Elaine’s Is Available. Art Is for Sale, Too.

Michael Falco for The New York TimesElaine Kaufman at her restaurant in 2005. Table No. 1 and other items from the restaurant and from Ms. Kaufman’s apartment will be auctioned in September.

Table No. 1 from Elaine’s, the Upper East Side restaurant that closed in May, will be auctioned on Sept. 20, along with the posters and artwork that lined the restaurant and books and memorabilia from the nearby apartment of its longtime owner, Elaine Kaufman. She died at 81 on Dec. 3 of complications from emphysema.

Doyle New York, the auction house that is handling the sale, estimates that Table No. 1 and its four chairs will go for $400 to $600. Also on the block will be the papier-mâché carousel horse that was in the window for years (estimated selling price, $200 to $300), copper pots from the kitchen (also estimated at $200 to $300) and the vintage cash register from behind the bar (estimated selling price, $400 to $600).The items being sold will be displayed at Doyle New York, at 175 East 87th Street, on Sept. 17, 18 and 19.

“I feel that this is the best — and, frankly, the only — way I know to share Elaine with those she cared about most,” said Diane Becker, the restaurant’s longtime manager, to whom Ms. Kaufman left her entire estate, including the restaurant; the two buildings it occupied on Second Avenue near East 88th Street and Ms. Kaufman’s co-op apartment nearby.

Ms. Kaufman’s will ordered that the apartment be sold to pay estate taxes as well as $230,000 in bequests to four relatives and three longtime employees. Ms. Becker said, when she announced that she was closing the restaurant, that it was “on life support.”
Ms. Becker said Tuesday that the two buildings and the apartment were still on the market.

Among the items from Ms. Kaufman’s apartment are two works by Andy Warhol. Doyle expects a 1956 lithograph of a shoe and a leg to sell for $10,000 to $15,000, and a 1970 screen print of flowers to go for $10,000 to $15,000.

A David Hockney etching and aquatint of a Panama hat is estimated at $5,000 to $7,000. A French Art Nouveau poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, “Mademoiselle Marcelle Lender, en Buste,” is expected to go for $7,000 to $10,000.

Doyle expects a photographic collage by the artist Wallace Berman to sell for $30,000 to $50,000 and a 1945 watercolor of Coney Island by Reginald Marsh to go for $10,000 to $15,000.

Ms. Becker is also selling books signed by Katharine Hepburn, Kirk Douglas and Truman Capote, as well as baseballs signed by Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter of the 1986 Mets and by George Steinbrenner after the Yankees won the World Series in 1978.

Kathleen Doyle, the chairwoman and chief executive of the auction house, acknowledged that the estimated price for Table No. 1 and its chairs might seem low. “We have to look at what would be a realistic value if something didn’t belong to a celebrity,” she said. “That’s why this is estimated at $400 to $600. Obviously, there will be a celebrity premium attached to that, but you can’t anticipate it.”

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.